Another comeback goes to waste, Pistons lose in Charlotte.

The Pistons, who had an awful 2nd quarter and were down by as much as 23 had the game within reach with seconds left on the clock. Ben Gordon fell short on two 3-point attempts that would have tied the game. Yet another back to back game loss and a comeback left on floor.

Key Points:

I’m really starting to question what the heck Kuester is doing or not doing. First he sits Ben Gordon with the hot hand in the third quarter of Sundays game when he gets his fourth foul and never brings him back in. Then against the Bobcats with Charlie V on fire and hitting almost everything he fails to get him the ball when the Pistons need baskets. I’m the coach I’m giving Charlie the ball for the 3…not Gordon who missed it twice. Charlie finished with a team high 25 points, a blocked shot, 2 assists and 3 boards in 31 minutes. He was 10-for-14 and 5-for-5 from downtown…why Kuester? I want answers!

Ben Gordon with 17 points on 6-for-16 shooting in 36 minutes with 4 assists and 3 steals. I still give the ball to Charlie for the last shot.

D.J. Augustin leads all scorers with 27…yep that’s right the Pistons got schooled by Augustin, who averages 12 points per game.

Ben Wallace just looks tired.

The Pistons outscore the Bobcats 31 to 20 in the fourth.

Are the Pistons now having second quarter collapses? Bobcats outscore Detroit 30 to 14 in the 2nd.

Shocking lineup of Bynum, Gordon, Hamilton, Wilcox and Charlie V to end the game.

Is T-mac hurt? He played just 10 minutes

Photo/AP editing Need4Sheed.com

Someone please tell Chris Wilcox that I thought he was going to play like this when the Pistons signed him. Wilcox with 15 points, 3 blocked shots, and 8 boards in 22 minutes off the bench. And one of the loudest dunks I have heard in a while.

[flashvideo file=http://www.need4sheed.com/videos/flash_video/dec_27_10_hl.f4v /]
Courtesy of The Detroit Pistons and The NBA

You know I love me some Will Bynum, but he his two horrible plays in the closing minutes really hurt Detroit. He finished with 6 points and 7 assists.

Block Party! Bobcats with 13 on the night.

Solid night for Tayshaun, 17 points in 29 minutes.

Off night for Rip 9 points on 4-10 shooting.
What’s up with Stuckey? The incredible shrinking point guard. Can you really have a PG that gets less assists than most anyone else on the team?

How many valiant efforts that fall short can we watch?

I’m almost afraid of what’s going to happen when the Celtics come to the Palace on Wednesday night.

yeah Kuester! We want answers!!! For a moment in the second quarter when the lead was huge, Kuester started putting in Daye, Maxiell, and Wilcox. I thought to myself, “hey, since when did garbage time start in the second quarter?”

Again, how do you let a team go on a 24-2 run? You are telling me that NO ONE can get to the foul line or push the ball for a fastbreak layup in that situation? Look, I’m as happy as anyone about the fourth quarter rally, but you cannot expect to allow a team to go on that run and win the game.

Villanueva is really earning that contract. All of a sudden, 7-8 million per year for him is looking pretty good. Gordon was better, but still not dominating like I want to see. But why were these two guys on the bench for the WHOLE second quarter. Rip never really had it tonight. McGrady looked sluggish. You got to get those guys back in there – and don’t suggest that they were tired on the second night of a back to back.

Chris Wilcox is awesome. He gave us a spark when we needed it. He was playing defence – seriously – and he showed some terrific post moves. It would be nice to see him build off of this because I honestly don’t know how much more Wallace has in him.

A couple of poor decisions in the 4th – Bynum letting Augustin into the paint for Thomas’ putback dunk. Bynum taking a ridiculously contested layup when only down 3 with 40 seconds to go. Taking two rushed threes in the last 12 seconds. I thought the first 3 was actually a better shot, even though it missed by more, then the second 3. At least he was slightly open on the first one, the second one he should have tried to get some ball movement going for the open 3.

Watching these games this season you can see good players on the team, but there is no one who can actually grab this team by the scruff of its neck and drag it to victories.
A team of followers but no leaders.
T-Mac is as close as it gets and he isn’t able to do it these days anymore.
Kuester just doesn’t have anyone he can rely on and he isn’t an experienced enough coach to come up with the right stuff in the crunch to get around the glaring issues of the team.
A sad state for the Pistons at the moment.

Reading this while the whole side of the screen is screaming at me with red L’s is beyond depressing. I woke up to watch some of the 3rd and it was simply painful to see how horrid we were shooting. I could have made most of the shots we were missing and Coach Q’s rotation is obviously the product of a crazy person. Also what was with letting them pivot and drive repeatedly? Looked like ballet class!

Stuckey needs to go. All these other players (Charlie V, Gordon, Rip, etc) would look a lot better if they had a PG who could spread the ball around. Stuck is holding back the entire team, we have no identity on offense.

I’m sorry to say this my fellow pistons fans. I know stucky is the scape goat on the team, but i think a lot of it is Ben Wallace also..he’s been getting tourched lately and we’ve been playing 4 on 5 since he scored over 20 points in that losing effort. Stuckey doesn’t even run the point, he brings the ball up and hands it off to a wing player and runs off of screens and that is the coaches plays. I’m not defending Stucky by any means he will rarly have any assist in this system. It’s not a coincidence he played better as a point grard coming off the bench under Flip Saunders because filp point guards has the ball in their hand the majority of the time, not in this system, Tayshaun runs the point more then Stucky..haha.

Very valid points about Stuck! They need a change and it starts with the coach! Only reason Billups got the assists he did with this system is because teams had to pay attention to the post (Rasheed?McDyess) and Rip was running guys crazy off screens! And you had to respect Billups jump shot, which Stuckey lacks!

Lazy is about all I can say about this team anymore. They get paid millions to play 82 games at 48 minutes a game. Anyone like to trade with one of the players at at least give it your best shot? I wonder what they would do working 40 plus hours a week? Fall asleep maybe? I’m not saying every player is Lazy but recent lost history explains most of it. What was it that Phil Jackson said a couple weeks ago? I don’t think the Pistons are even trying to win games?

What the hell……first Dumb ass Stuckey drives the ball in overtime against the Bulls which what a dumb idea for a last play and then Bynum drives the ball just to get his A** blocked at the end of the game……and then gordon jacks up a constested 3!?!?! we can’t win with small SG’s and PG’s doing that, they’re are NOT Billups give it to a freaking scorerI woulda lived with the loss with McGrady, Prince or Hamilton shooting the last shot…..damn the small guards we have………Horrible

Gordon and Bynum aren’t and stuckey just sucks with no PG IQ and RIP is 6’8 and I’m not nor will I ever knock on him, it’s not his fault they destroyed the team and getting suckered into a contract that they knew he didn’t want to be there without CB

I’m normally a Stuckey apologist, but he has been mediocre-to-awful lately. I don’t know if his toe’s still bothering him, but he needs to either have the courtesy to let Bynum or McGrady start or Kuester should make him come off the bench until he’s ready to play with tenacity and take the reigns of this team again.